Sept, i, 1897.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
161 
tracteclMiy dead and diseased wood, and ii canker had 
been present on the estate for some time there 
would naturally be a large increase in the number 
of the insects which would have been freely breeding 
in the decaying wood bark.” 
Seeing that two or three kinds of “ poochies 
are recognised enemies of cacao in Trinidad and 
(’l-;ewhere, it would seem not unlikely that 
Ceylon should be troubled with one or other in 
addition to “ canker.” But the attack on each 
estate should be the subject of careful inspection 
by the Entomologist. 
COFFEE IN FIJI. 
We append a specimen of the glowing, but de- 
fective if not unreliable, imragraphs which lind 
their way into the columns of inexperienced 
journalists in discussing products which they 
would fain see e.stablished and e.xtended in their 
midst. We take the following from the latest 
Fiji limes -. — 
“ A very handsome sample of Arabica coffee in 
parchment is on view at this office from the small 
estate of Mr. R. Morel, and has bc.-c much admired 
by connoisseurs, and pronounced by them equal to 
coffee grown in any part of the world. Th? grower- 
says that his crop is a very prolific one this year, and 
will yield more than fifteen cwt. to the acre. This 
is a very exceptional yield, as five cwt. is considered 
a good average crop, although in some favoured 
places in Ceylon we have read of 8 to 10 Cvvt., but 
this was exceptional and not the rule. Mr. Morel’s 
plantation is situated on an exposed portion of the 
coast, and is quite free of any disease.” 
In the first place, no mention is made of the 
area of “ the small estate.” To secure a crop 
of 15 cwt. trom one acre or even up to 10 
acres once in a way, would be no great feat 
if high or rich garden cultivation were resorted 
to ; but that would, obviously be no crite- 
rion of what 100 acres treated in the ordinary 
way would yield. But we doubt Mr. Morels 
estimate; and we are borne out by the opinion 
of a planter wdio know's Fiji well : — 
“ No reliance can he placeil on the estimates made 
by the settlers there as they have never properly 
grown and cultivated coilee. The only two men 
1 know in Fiji w'ho could at jiresent give a fair 
e.stimate of crop on trce.s are Dixon, -who used 
to be on Kelvin, Dolosbage, in the old coffee 
days, and Geo. Urummond (an older planter than 
Dixon) and a brother of Gaagwaiily Drummond. 
These two know all about coffee and could 
give reliable estimates, fhe others OTily go by 
o-uess-work. I have often seen lieids ]iut down 
as bearing 12, 15, and even 20 cwt. an acre 
when at^the outside they only had 5 to 6 on 
the trees and when laughed at have offered to 
back my opinion and invariably won. The same 
applies 'to leaf disease. Settlers will tell you 
there’s not a trace of it on their trees, and on 
examination one who kuow.s anything of Hemileiu 
vastatrix can see it distinctly. Leaf disease i.s 
all over Fiji: tin- with dear and scarce labour, 
not to mention hurricanes, will militate against 
successful coffee-growing there.” 
Coconut Land in the Southern Province. 
—Mr. Wace in his Beport for 1896 states that 
there is still a large extent of suitable land 
available for coconuts in his province. It ought 
to be surveyed and put up for auction sale in con- 
venient blocks as soon as po.ssible. 
COFFEE PLANTING ON THE SHEVAUOY 
HILLS. 
{From a Correspondent.) 
The Shevai'oy Hills, which I visited early in Jun«, 
after an absence of 30 years, g ive me the impres- 
sion of having been asleep for those 30 y«ars. 
Nothing seenrs to have altered. There is the same 
steep gh.aat, impossible for wheeled traffic, there are 
the same old bnugalows with some additions — there 
is the same dimmirtive lake which always looks 
half empty : there is a tiny Reading Room, which 
has net as yet developed into a flub, and there is a 
general air of drowsiness over the place. But Yer- 
caud is exceedingly pretty notwithstanding. The 
air is cool and pleasant, a nice wind is blow-ing, 
and the hollow lanes fringed by flowering hedges 
remind one of the old country. In one respect some 
progress has been made, and that is in the extension 
of coffee cultivation. Almost all the land that has 
not been reserved by the Government has been 
taken up and planted out. Already half way up, at 
an elevation of about 2,000 ft., 
THE PL.\HTATIONS COHJlfiNCE, 
and improve the higher we rise. Once on the 
top of the hills, almost every compound is full 
of coffee bushes, and any one wishing to open 
out a new plantation must go a distance of 14 or 15 
miles. At the time of my visit the coffee berries 
were all set after the second or April blossom. In a 
great many of the clearings the trees were perfectly 
loaded with crop, and on the whole I have seldom 
seen a finer show. Many points struck me as very 
different to the system of cultivation 1 had seen else- 
where, especially in Travancore, whence I had just 
come. In the first place, there seems to be very 
little virgin forest. There is a small piece still stand- 
ing near the lake, known as the Sacred Grove, which 
shows what the virgin forest really was. The rest cf 
the forest seemed to consist almost entirely of 
secondary growth, sprung up during the last 60 or 70 
years. None of these trees are very large. What 
struck me first of all was the large amount of natural 
shade. From a distance, a hill side will have all the 
appearance of forest, but as you come closer you find 
that it is a plantation. Only some of the trees have 
been felled and the remainder left for shade. In 
- Travancore they make a clean sweep of the whole 
of the trees, burn them and then plant out artificial 
shade trees. The next thing that seemed to me 
strange was 
THE HEIGHT OF THE COFFEE BUSHES. 
Instead of being topped at 3 ft. from the ground, most 
of them were about 6 ft. and some as high as 10 ft. 
In some places the trees had been coppiced 
and fresh shoots were springing up from the 
stools and bearing a good crop. One result of 
this system of growth seems to be that there is 
not such a show of leaf. In plantations where the 
t^ees are lopped 3 ft. from the ground, the branches 
spread out so as to cover the whole soil, of which in 
a well planted tote there should be as little to be 
seen as possible. Another thing that struck me as 
peculiar was the absence — with few exceptions of 
estate roads and paths, which should make super- 
Tision difficult. 
During my stay I visited several estates and made 
many enquiries from different persons. One great 
ADVAXT.tGE OF THE SHEVAltOVS 
seems to be the mildness of the monsoon. 
There are no violent bmr.sts as there are 
in Travancore. There is but little wind, 
indeed [so little that the young plants are never- 
staked, and it is owing to this absence of wind that 
there is no danger in allowing the coffee trees to 
grow higher than elsetvbere. Instead of heavy 
torrents of rain listing for several days lon-cther 
they only get good showers every day, with Ir.enks 
of several hours during the monsoon months and a 
fairly steady supply during the rest of the year, 
This has been a dry year, March and part of 
April especially so, but in May they had 9 ruches 
